4 on State Administration California State Assembly State Capitol, P.O. Box 942849 Sacramento, CA 94249-0031 Senator Mark DeSaulnier, Chair Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration, General Government, Judicial and Veterans Affairs California State Senate State Capitol, Room 2054 Sacramento, CA 95814 Re: Support for proposed 2010-2011 budget item 0911 Dear Assemblymember Furutani and Senator DeSaulnier: We are following up on our letter of March 25, 2010 to indicate our support for the Governor’s proposal to add $3 million to the Citizens Redistricting Initiative. We believe it may be helpful to provide you with some details, drawn from our combined experience and knowledge about redistricting commissions in other states and localities (as well as previous statewide redistricting processes in California), regarding what we believe are the important needs of the Citizens Redistricting Commission that will soon be seated in California in accord with Proposition 11 of 2008. These include staffing needs, areas of expertise that will be required, and some specific categories of “hard costs” that we anticipate. • Outreach. We believe that the transparency of the entire process and involvement of the public (especially traditionally underrepresented populations) are extremely important aspects that must be guaranteed in this new process for redistricting Legislative and state Board of Equalization seats. Proposition 11 establishes a constitutional mandate for the commission to “conduct an open and transparent process enabling full public consideration of and comment on the drawing of district lines.” Statutory sections of the proposition require that all data and commission records be posted in a manner that ensures immediate and widespread public access, and that the commission implement an open hearing process for public input and deliberation that shall be subject to public notice and promoted through a thorough, adequately funded outreach program to solicit broad public participation in the redistricting process. In addition, as stated in Proposition 11, the commission must ensure that a “complete and accurate computerized database is available for redistricting, and that procedures are in place to provide the public ready access to redistricting data and computer software for drawing maps.” In order to do all that well, the commission will need to be adequately staffed and able to take advantage of services for communication and dissemination of information through

both traditional and emerging methods. Specifically, we think the commission will require: Public hearing coordinator Public outreach experts to do both press outreach (including second language media, digital media, etc.) and general public outreach (including outreach to minority groups, community groups, etc.) Translators; transcription service; sign language interpreter Website administrator/content updater A means of ensuring public access to redistricting software, such as through assistance centers housed in community centers in various locations around the state. o Hard costs: Flyers, etc. Materials for hearings, including large-scale maps Public noticing Software (for example, software for electronic communication with large groups). • Technical needs. Since the process of redistricting is of its very nature a technical one, we believe the commission’s chief of staff will need to be conversant with the technical aspects of the work performed by other staff as well as able to coordinate the work pertaining to commission meetings and outreach to the public. Staff with technical expertise indicated in the following list will be needed to produce draft maps, convert input that comes from the public in various formats into maps, integrate datasets received from various sources including local governments and community organizations with the commission’s dataset, and post map information in a manner “that achieve[s] the widest public access reasonably possible.” Some of this work will need to be done during the commission’s public hearings. While this list is of course only an estimate of the staffing needed, we have drawn on the experience and recommendations of our collaborators who have staffed local government redistricting commissions in California. In addition to legal counsel that will be needed to help the commission comply with the strict open meeting and related requirements of Proposition 11, counsel with expertise in implementation and enforcement of the federal Voting Rights Act is required by the proposition. We note that the nationwide pool of persons with the technical and legal expertise needed for the commission to work effectively is not large and competition among states for such services may be significant, adding to the cost of obtaining those services. o Team of experts Chief of staff, someone with “technical capability”: Coordinating technical issues, outreach, functioning of the commission. Line-drawers (2-3 minimum): Processing public comment and data Number crunchers (1-2 minimum): Formatting data received from external sources for the commission’s dataset. GIS experience would be helpful. Technical assistants (1-2): Updating and managing the website; indexing information so that it is easy to find. o Legal counsel, including Voting Rights Act experience Types of legal issues the commission will encounter:

• Voting Rights Act • Procedure/public process issues. o Mapping software: “Maptitude” – $10,000 per license. • Commissioners’ expenses. The State Auditor estimates that a commissioner’s work may consume 10 to 40 hours a week, with less time initially and more time towards the end of the eight and a half month period from January 1 to September 15, 2011. Proposition 11 requires that the commission hold hearings for public input before the drawing of draft maps as well as hearings following the drawing and display of maps. An estimate of commissioners’ expenses must include travel expenses to accommodate an extensive schedule that optimizes opportunities for public participate. As noted above, it is likely that some staff travel will be needed so that technical functions can be performed at the hearings. o 10-40 hrs/wk per commissioner @ $300/day o Travel expenses for commissioners; also for the staff as needed. Administrative needs. The commission’s budget must include operating expenses: o Office space o Equipment o Utilities o Support staff.

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As we have stated before, Proposition 11 designed the initial $3 million allocation to be a floor, not a ceiling. With the passage of Proposition 11, the voters of California declared that they wanted the redistricting process to be open and inclusive. We support the Governor’s proposed addition of $3 million to the budget and believe that the Legislature’s support of this budget line is important to ensuring that the Citizens Redistricting Commission is able to perform its duties effectively and with full participation by the public. Moreover, we believe that this relatively modest line item will go a long way to bolstering voter confidence in the Legislature and the responsiveness of our state government. Thank you very much for your support. Sincerely, Jeannine English California State President, AARP James P. Mayer Executive Director, California Forward Kathay Feng Executive Director, California Common Cause Alice A. Huffman President, California State National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)